A Trip to the ER

 Lena had a little accident last night. :( We took the rails off the bunk beds because we thought they didn't need them anymore. Everything was fine the first night. Nobody fell out of bed. But the second night was a different story.  Lena fell out once and we went in to help her.  We had a large cushion on the floor to break any falls, and she was fine. She said her knee hurt a little, but not bad. She went back to bed.  Then about an hour and half later, more crying.  Jim and I rushed in there.  While he got the bed rail out and started putting it back on the bed, I looked down at Lena and saw blood streaming down her face.  I got her into the bathroom and started cleaning her up.  She had a large gash on her forehead. :( It bled like crazy for a few minutes, but we were able to get it stopped pretty quickly.  I knew it was bad, though.  It wasn't a regular cut; it was definitely a gash.  We think that she must have hit the blunt corner of the toy chest in their room.  After we got a band-aid on her, she calmed down and we put her back to bed, rail safely in place.

I was too worked up to sleep, and was really worried about Lena's gash.  I went downstairs and googled "how do i know if i need stitches?" and called my mom for her opinion.  Web results varied, but a general consensus was that if the edges of a wound don't touch, stitching it closed will help it heal and minimize scarring.  I was really worried about scarring.  I tried calling her doctor's office after hours number, but was told there is no doctor on call between midnight and 6:30.  Mom's advice was to see how it looks in the morning.  So I checked on Lena (she was fine) and went back to bed.

In the morning I called the doctor on call and she asked how deep the wound was.  I told her it wasn't very deep and it was only 1/2" long, but that it was gaping open.  She recommended going to the ER.  We waited for Eva to wake up, had a quick breakfast, and set off for the hospital right around the time that church was starting.  I was hoping that maybe instead of stitches, she could get some of that glue that they use sometimes.

There was no waiting at the ER (yay!), so we were seen immediately by a PA.  She looked at it and said that it was gaping open too wide for the glue.  She said she could do a couple of stitches, but that stitches could increase the scarring a little bit because of the puncture marks.  She said steri-strips would help close it up and wouldn't leave any marks.  So that's what we went with.  She cleaned it up really well and applied 4 steri-strips.  Then put on a big band-aid.  The steri-strips will stay on for 4-7 days and will help keep the wound closed as it heals.  She recommended putting Vaseline on it once it starts scabbing over to help minimize the scarring further.

Here are a few pics.

 Lena's gash in the morning.  Thankfully she didn't have any headache pain or anything else other than the cut.

 A close-up of the gash.  Pretty gory.  I didn't let her see it until after we got home from the ER.  I think it would have freaked her out.

 She brought along Johnny Giraffe for moral support, but she was such a trooper, she didn't even need him.  She didn't whine or cry or fuss at all, even when the PA swabbed her with some brown stuff that made it sting.  She's one tough cookie!

 She had no problem smiling for the camera.  The PA was so impressed with her.  She said, "You're the most awesome patient I've ever had!"  I think that made Lena's day.

They gave both girls popsicles before we left.  

I feel really horrible that Lena got hurt because of something we did, but I am so proud of the way she handled it.  I pray that it heals quickly and that the scarring is minimal.